Moments ago, I read the title for a YouTube clip that read, "John McCain Gets Owned on Meet the Press." There's another one which read, "John McCain Owned by Obama." This variety of language, nerdspeak or English 2.0, seems all the rage today. People have found it to cumbersome to say, "I have to go," substituting it for "G2G," in real life conversation. "JK" is another popular one. These expressions have their roots in instant messaging which is fine because "im is totally ka and mmrotmffl (Instant messaging is totally kick ass and makes me roll on mutha fuckin floor laughin)." I jest.
The introduction of gamer, or l33t, speak is a new breed of annoyance.
The term "own" is of particular interest because of its all encompassing usage, which has caused a glut of verbal and textual laziness. The expression conjures images of liters of Mountain Dew, headsets, World of Warcraft, acne, and lonely people.
It means literally anything. From "I blocked your shot in our pickup basketball game," to "My mail wasn't picked up by the mailman," to "Whoops! I stepped on your shoelace." With its wide scope, the word has lost its first and only useful meaning. I've gathered from extensive research that "ownage" or "pwnage" is the celebratory rallying cry for chopping off an opponent's head on the digital battlefield or shooting them between the eyes in a video game.
It does not describe a debate in which a former presidential candidate loses or embarasses himself. The appropriate description for that would read, "John McCain Embarasses Himself on Television."
Ultimately, my cause is a losing one because I am increasingly outnumbered by people like this.
No comments:
Post a Comment